MIT News November 21, 2018
The aircraft, which weighs about 5 pounds and has a 5-meter wingspan, carries an array of thin wires beneath the front-end act as positively charged electrodes, while similarly arranged thicker wires beneath the back end serve as negative electrodes. The fuselage of the plane holds a stack of lithium-polymer batteries supplying electricity at 40,000 volts to positively charge the wires via a lightweight power converter. Once the wires are energized, they act to attract and strip away negatively charged electrons from the surrounding air molecules. The air molecules that are left behind are newly ionized and are in turn attracted to the negatively charged electrodes at the back of the plane flows toward the negatively charged wires colliding millions of times with other air molecules. This creates a thrust that propels the aircraft forward…read more. Video
A new MIT plane is propelled via ionic wind. Batteries in the fuselage supply voltage to electrodes strung along the length of the plane, generating a wind of ions that propels the plane forward. Image: Christine Y. He